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Lecture

Macromolecules: Structure and Function

In course

ENV-103: Biology

This course will cover the fundamental principles governing life and the living world. Topics will include the diversity of living organisms, cellular biology, genetics, evolution, and ecology. This course provides a foundation in biology, fostering critic ...

Description

This lecture covers the fundamental concepts of macromolecules, focusing on the chemical composition of life, the importance of carbon, and the structure of proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. It explores the versatility of carbon atoms, the formation of bonds, and the role of macromolecules in living processes. The lecture also delves into the synthesis of triglycerides, the structure of phospholipids, and their significance in biological membranes.

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Instructors (4)

Pierre Rossi

Anna Carratala Ripolles

During my PhD, I mainly focused on characterizing the effect of environmental factors (namely temperature and sunlight) and disinfectants on the stability of human viral pathogens as contaminants of aquatic environments. In addition,I developed a novel source tracking tool to identify avian fecal contamination in environmental samples. Thanks to a research fellowship given by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, I also had the opportunity to explore the diversity of marine viruses in Mediterranean coastal waters by genetic fingerprinting and by next generation sequencing. Later on, I became interested in the long-term effect of environmental stressors on virus communities, so I joined the LCE as a postdoc to investigate the adaptation of enteroviruses to ultraviolet radiation. For 4 years, I worked on developing UV-resistant viruses and characterizing their acquired phenotypic and genetic properties by combining directed evolution experiments, deep sequencing and population genetics. Out of the lab, I am passionate about nature, traveling and scuba diving.

Julien Maillard

2011 - present: Research associate at the Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology (LBE, IIE-ENAC, EPFL) 2007 - 2010: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology (LBE, IIE-ENAC, EPFL) 2005 - 2006: Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of East Anglia (UEA, Norwich, UK) 2000 - 2004: PhD thesis at the Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology (LBE) 1995 - 2000: B.sc & M.sc at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology, Zurich (ETHZ)

Ianina Altshuler

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Membrane biology

Related concepts (32)

Macromolecule

A macromolecule is a very large molecule important to biological processes, such as a protein or nucleic acid. It is composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms. Many macromolecules are polymers of smaller molecules called monomers. The most common macromolecules in biochemistry are biopolymers (nucleic acids, proteins, and carbohydrates) and large non-polymeric molecules such as lipids, nanogels and macrocycles. Synthetic fibers and experimental materials such as carbon nanotubes are also examples of macromolecules.

Membrane protein

Membrane proteins are common proteins that are part of, or interact with, biological membranes. Membrane proteins fall into several broad categories depending on their location. Integral membrane proteins are a permanent part of a cell membrane and can either penetrate the membrane (transmembrane) or associate with one or the other side of a membrane (integral monotopic). Peripheral membrane proteins are transiently associated with the cell membrane.

Carbohydrate

A carbohydrate (ˌkɑːrboʊˈhaɪdreɪt) is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where m may or may not be different from n), which does not mean the H has covalent bonds with O (for example with , H has a covalent bond with C but not with O). However, not all carbohydrates conform to this precise stoichiometric definition (e.g.

Macromolecular crowding

The phenomenon of macromolecular crowding alters the properties of molecules in a solution when high concentrations of macromolecules such as proteins are present. Such conditions occur routinely in living cells; for instance, the cytosol of Escherichia coli contains about 300–400mg/ml of macromolecules. Crowding occurs since these high concentrations of macromolecules reduce the volume of solvent available for other molecules in the solution, which has the result of increasing their effective concentrations.

Cell membrane

The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extracellular space). The cell membrane consists of a lipid bilayer, made up of two layers of phospholipids with cholesterols (a lipid component) interspersed between them, maintaining appropriate membrane fluidity at various temperatures.

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